Thinking Machines Lab

AI · Venture Capital · Semiconductors

Funding

Thinking Machines reportedly in talks to raise $5-6B at $40B valuation

Nvidia's prospective stake would mark its fourth major model-layer bet in five weeks, a pattern that reframes it as capital allocator, not just chip supplier.

• Thinking Machines Lab, the AI startup led by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, is reportedly in talks to raise $5B-$6B at a pre-money valuation of at least $40B, with existing backer Accel discussing leading the round.
• The lab sells tools for companies to customize AI models on their own data via its Tinker platform and ships open-weight models like Inkling, with revenue reportedly running above $100M annualized.
• Nvidia is separately in talks to invest about $2.5B, roughly half the round, deepening a partnership that already includes a March 2026 deal to supply at least one gigawatt of next-gen Vera Rubin compute.
• The company's prior round raised $2B in July 2025 at a roughly $10B-$12B valuation led by Andreessen Horowitz, with Nvidia, GV, Lightspeed and Jane Street also participating -- the new terms would price it at about 3.3x that mark.
• The $40B figure is a step down from the $50B-$60B valuation the startup had sought late last year in a round that reportedly collapsed amid co-founder departures back to OpenAI, including Lilian Weng.
• Nvidia's talks follow a five-week run of model-layer bets, including a roughly $12.9B Hugging Face acquisition, an SSI investment, and a $30B-plus stake in Perplexity, positioning it as a capital allocator across the AI stack.
• A chipmaker funding a major customer at multibillion-dollar scale blurs the line between strategic partnership and circular revenue financing, a dynamic drawing growing scrutiny across the AI sector.